Jodi in India

Jodi's first week in India was supposed to be capped off by the Staff College's Navy Ball. This was going to be a military formal to celebrate the birthday of the Indian Navy. Because of the recent attacks in Mumbai, though, the country observed a week of mourning, which precluded any social functions. Jodi had planned on wearing a traditional sari to the event and she already had a local tailor make one for her. She didn't get to wear it out officially, but I made sure to document the fact that she at least tried it on. Here's Jodi in her sari, with technical direction on how to wear one from my cook Mary.

Hilde (UK), Jodi, Min-hee (Korea) and Lisa (Singapore) play some golf.

At the end of the first week of Jodi's visit, I was officially off for the mid-term break. For the foreign officers this meant three weeks of no Staff College. I thought it would be best to ease Jodi into South Asian travel, so we started with a weekend trip up to Mysore, about a three hour drive to the north. I'd visited Mysore during the first term break, so I had a pretty good idea of what was worth seeing.

Jodi feeds a monkey at Bandipur, on the way to Mysore.

In front of the Maharaja's Palace.

Shopping for tikka powder in the Mysore Market.

Me and Jodi going through the pujas at Chamundiswari temple. Moments later I almost got into a fight with the shoe minder, who wanted us to pay 200 rupees for watching our shoes, a service that normally costs no more than 10 rupees! I gave him 50 rupees.

L: In front of the Nandi at the temple. R: Jodi poses with a statue of some guy killing a cobra

The Maharaja's Palace lit up at night.

As a side trip from Mysore, we drove west to the village of Bylakuppe. Bylakuppe was set up as a refugee camp for Tibetans in the 1960s that has since flourished into a full-fledged Tibetan community in the heart of India. We spent the afternoon visiting the Namdroling Monastery, which has a collection of Buddhist temples including the stunning Golden Temple.

After visiting Mysore and Bylakuppe, we were ready to leave India and head south for Sri Lanka...